Field
This disclosure relates to a negative electrode for a rechargeable lithium battery and a rechargeable lithium battery including the same are disclosed.
Description of the Related Technology
A rechargeable lithium battery has drawn attention as a power source for small, portable electronic devices. Rechargeable lithium batteries include an organic electrolyte solution and have a high discharge voltage that may be two times or more greater than a conventional battery that includes an alkali aqueous solution. Accordingly, lithium batteries have a high energy density.
A lithium-transition metal oxide having a structure being capable of intercalating lithium ions, such as LiCoO2, LiMn2O4, LiNi1-xCoxO2 (0<x<1), and the like may be used as positive active materials of a rechargeable lithium battery. Various carbon-based materials such as artificial graphite, natural graphite, and hard carbon that may intercalate and deintercalate have been used as negative active materials of a rechargeable lithium battery.
An electrode of a lithium battery may be formed by coating a slurry in which an active material, a binder, and a solvent are mixed and dispersed on a current collector and drying the same. However, the coating layer may have weak adherence to the current collector and thus, cause a crack on an electrode. In order to avoid this problem, the binder may be included in a larger amount but larger amounts of binder may impair impregnation of the electrolyte to the electrode. The impaired impregnation may subsequently deteriorate battery performance such as cycle-life and the like.